In Space, in the Sky and on Land: LM Innovates to Create a More Sustainable Future

From a system that turns waste into clean fuel, to unmanned aerial systems that help first responders, in 2015 Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] innovated to expand how it’s addressing environmental and social challenges. The Corporation shared details about these projects and others with the release of its 2015 Sustainability Report, “Science of Citizenship”. The report demonstrates progress on issues that are the most critical to stakeholders and long-term business success. In total, the Corporation achieved 95 percent of its sustainability goals.

“We’re a company of nearly 60,000 engineers and scientists,” said Leo S. Mackay, Jr., vice president of Ethics and Sustainability for Lockheed Martin. “We’re taking our industry-leading engineering capability and applying it to significant resource efficiency and sustainability challenges. Not only are we meeting our own goals for reducing our environmental footprint, we’re also creating technology and redesigning processes that will help others make progress.”

The report highlights several innovations that helped Lockheed Martin achieve its sustainability goals in 2015:

Alternative Energy: The Corporation broke ground on a 250 kilowatt gasification plant in partnership with Concord Blue. The plant uses a mix of organic materials to produce synthetic gas that can be used to create electricity, fuels, hydrogen, heat or steam. This reduces emissions and waste going to landfills. To make renewable energy more accessible and affordable, Lockheed Martin also advanced the development of energy storage systems for industrial and utility customers. Safely adding more clean power to electricity grids helps reduce carbon emissions and supports efforts to improve electricity access to the nearly 1.3 billion people (18 percent of the global population) who lack basic energy access.

Advanced Space Technology: Lockheed Martin assembled the first Geostationary Operation Environmental Satellite-R series (GOES-R) advanced weather satellite, which will provide higher-resolution images of severe storms five times faster than NOAA’s existing GOES series. These early warnings will allow for better preparation, saving lives and community infrastructure. The Corporation also opened a test facility to help detect, track, and catalog 200,000 objects orbiting the planet more than 1.5 million times a day. Orbital debris threatens telecommunications and military communications infrastructure and the safety of human space travel.

Enhanced Emergency Response: Lockheed Martin successfully demonstrated its K-MAX unmanned helicopter’s firefighting and emergency response capability. The helicopter can help mitigate the impacts of extreme weather events and support humanitarian relief efforts. In addition, a single Indago quadcopter was able to survey 2,500 acres of demolished areas of the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu following a massive category five storm with 155-mph winds. The quadcopter completed the search-and-rescue oriented task in just 12 days.

Optimized Manufacturing: Lockheed Martin expanded use of 3-D printing, which leads to material resource savings, improved durability and shortened assembly time. For example, the Corporation improved the design and production of omnidirectional antennas that fly on all spacecraft. They serve as the main communications link between satellites and ground control. The new antenna, designed specifically for 3-D printing, replaced 12 complex parts and decreased materials necessary for production. Overall, the new approach slashed production time from months to days, cut machine run time, and reduced costs by 50%.

Reduced Emissions: In 2015, the Corporation activated a 150,000-square-foot solar project in Florida that will produce approximately 3,300 megawatt hours of emissions-free electricity annually. This and other projects have resulted in renewable energy comprising nearly one-fifth of total electricity load used in business operations. As a result of renewable energy credit purchases, we avoided 28% of carbon emissions from purchased electricity in direct operations.

Lockheed Martin is alone among U.S. aerospace and defense companies as a member of the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and recently earned its highest-ever ranking on CR Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, placing eighth.